Grab your bro for some ‘Broga’ classes

BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO | April Yakaboski (center) leads a hot yoga class at her studio on West Main Street in Riverhead Friday evening. Broga classes are Saturdays and Tuesday nights.

Aerial Fitness Hot Yoga Studio in Riverhead tries to separate itself from the competition by offering the newest fitness trends to East End customers, said owner April Yakaboski.

Its newest trend: Broga, a yoga class designed specifically for men. It focuses more on strength and less on flexibility, traditional yoga’s focus.

“As a yoga instructor I have always felt something missing when men attended my yoga classes,” said Ms. Yakaboski.

The Main Street yoga studio, which has been around for four years, now offers the class Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. and Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. Classes are open to both men and women, Ms. Yakaboski said.

Q. What is Broga?

A. It is a cardio-based yoga, it is de-stressing and strengthening; so a lot of planks, push ups, a lot of upper body and core work.

We probably do 50 pushups in a one-hour class, different types of push-ups. Then we do core strength, yoga style crunches. We balance the strengthen with the flexibility.

Q. How is it different from regular yoga?

A. Because it is specifically geared towards guys, it is based less on flexibility and more on strength. Regular yoga has a lot of hip opening poses, where Broga does not. When you look at traditional yoga, men are not comfortable doing them. Their anatomy is a close frontal pelvis. To do hip openers its kind of painful, which is a bit discouraging for men.

Q. What are the benefits?

A. The benefits are increased total body flexibility, range of movement, strength conditioning, cardio and an overall de-stressing experience.

It’s an hour and it caters to yourself, not your family or your coworkers. We spend most of our days stressing about everything going on around us, but for one hour you focus on you, just your body, just your needs.

Q. Who came up with Broga?

A. Two men, Robert Cidoti and Adam O’Neill, from Massachusetts invented it. Robert is a yoga instructor who wanted to bring the benefits of yoga to more men. Adam is a devout believer in the benefits of yoga for all people, especially men who think they won’t enjoy it.